Fat Lady Sings Slots

They say ‘it’s not over till the fat lady sings’, but when playing this game, it’s not over till you bag the 3,750 booty (which is also when the fat lady bursts into her inimitable, warbling caterwaul). Only then can you walk home, a sack of money tossed over your shoulder and a broad grin pasted on your face.

This non-progressive 5-reeler from Microgaming is all about the Falstaffian fat lady and her role in winning you cash. Whether she can hold a tune or not is irrelevant; whether you can play a slot is also largely irrelevant, since everybody can play slots: if your luck’s in, you’ll win; if it’s not, you won’t. Simple.

A Theatrical Performance

The reel case of this opera-themed slot game has been designed to resemble a theatre. Ornately carved wooden side beams and headers frame the reels, giving the impression of the action playing out on well-trodden boards. The characters consist of a trio of portly females (all, presumably, singers). One is dressed in a Geisha-like outfit, another twirls expensive pearls and is wearing a ruched dress while the third sports a plait and wears a viking hat.

As well as our three heffalumps, we have regular playing card symbols (J, Q, K, A) and a Fat Lady Sings icon, which is the wild in the game. As such, it can substitute for all symbols except the scatter – which happens to be a spooky pair of drama masks. Wilds are also stacked on reels two and four during free spins, and they are the game’s highest-paying symbol. 3,000 credits is waiting for the lucky punter who can land five-in-a-line, while 1,500 awaits he who can land four-in-a-row. Hitting four wilds results in a greater pay-out than landing five of the next best-paying symbols, which happen to be the Nordic fat lady (1,000).

Making A Fat Profit

A cursory glance at the pay-table reveals Fat Lady Sings to be a rather high-paying slot game. Hitting five of the playing card symbols won’t clear your student debt – five Aces pays out a modest 200 credits – but landing five of the fat ladies, or the wilds, is a much more attractive proposition. The scatters, meanwhile, entail no coin value in the base game; they are simply utilised to unlock free spins. During free spins, though, you can win modest amounts (15, 50, 100) for landing three, four or five scatters. All wins pay left-to-right, except the drama masks, which pay in any position.

Scatters Worth Smiling About

The scatter may be a creepy pair of drama masks – one laughing uproariously, the other crying like a baby who’s dropped his rattle – but you’ll find your emotions aligned with the former when you see this bad boy flashing across the reels. Land three or more and you’ll be shown a selection of wine glasses and asked to choose low, medium or high pitch. The portly lady tests out her lung capacity and shatters a number of glasses to reveal free spins. The following round sees the glasses replaced by vases; another corpulent filly breaks into song, with the shattered vases revealing the multiplier to be applied to each win.

Lastly, the peerless viking opera singer smashes as many as she can in order to reveal the bonus win, which is a multiple of the initial bet. The maximum multiplier is 5x.

During free spins, a jaunty opera tune replaces the standard casino sound effects from the base game. The ambient audio also improves whenever you hit a winning combination.

All Hail The Fat Lady

You can’t help but warm to the triumvirate of fat divas, and by extension to the game in which they are depicted. This jolly video slot is well designed, entertaining and a joy to play, whether you’re taking part in the base game or running the gauntlet of smashed glasses and vases in the bonus round.

Usually you simply guess an icon or flip over a playing card to reveal bonuses and multipliers: with Fat Lady Sings, you prompt a fat lady to do what she does best – sing and shatter objects with the power of her pipes. There aren’t many downsides to this game, although it would be nice if the wild symbols had a multiplier attached. It’d also be cool if the scatter symbol paid out during base play, but there’s the rub: you can’t have everything, in life as in slot games.